United States presidential election, 1868

The United States presidential election, 1868 was held on 3 November 1868. The election was the first to be held during the Reconstruction era in the aftermath of the American Civil War; the states of Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi did not participate due to being under US Army occupation, while Nebraska was able to vote for the first time. The candidates were American Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant with Schuyler Colfax on the Republican Party ticket, while the Democratic Party ticket consisted of Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, Jr..

Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi had not yet been restored to the Union, so they could not vote. For the first time, emancipated African-American former slaves could vote in a US presidential election as the result of the first of the Reconstruction Acts, and these freedmen overwhelmingly voted for the liberal Republican Party instead of the conservative Democratic Party. The freedmen helped to swing the election in the favor of the Republican Party, which had never seen such substantial support from the American South. The Democrats, whose legacy had been soiled by the Civil War and the impeached president Andrew Johnson's troubled administration, were buried in the Electoral College, although they had a good run in the popular vote. Grant beat Seymour 214 to 80 in the Electoral College, and he became the next president.

Results

 * Liberal dot.png Ulysses S. Grant/Schuyler Colfax - 214 electoral votes
 * Conservative dot.png Horatio Seymour/Francis P. Blair, Jr. - 80 electoral votes